


Once Upon a Time

by RowboatCop



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Corny, Day 2, F/M, Fluff, fairytale, really corny as fuck, skoulsonfest2k16
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-19
Updated: 2016-01-19
Packaged: 2018-05-15 00:18:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5764519
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RowboatCop/pseuds/RowboatCop
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Phil tells a bedtime story. It's not exactly what he plans, but it works out pretty well.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Once Upon a Time

“Daisy’s out on a mission, kiddo,” Coulson informs their guest as he steps into her temporary bedroom, “so I came to tuck you in.”

“Will she be back tomorrow?”

“Yes,” he answers easily. The last call in on the comms made it sound like they’re just tying up loose ends at this point — they’ll probably be back within the hour. But Daisy had asked him to see that Lydia got to bed by nine, so he’s here, even though he’s a little unsure of how to handle bedtime for a ten year old.

“Are you going to tell me a bedtime story, Phil?”

“Sure,” he answers, actually pretty relieved to have a clearly defined mission here.

He wouldn’t say he’s bad with kids by any stretch, but he finds himself feeling awkward, especially after the way May raised her eyebrows at him when Daisy made this request.

Not that it was a strange request or at all out of place. Although Daisy’s been handling bedtime duties for the weeks Lydia has been in residence, the girl has taken a huge amount of interest in his office — spending a lot of time with him, very carefully touching his toys, and asking for explanations about Captain America and spy gadgets from the 1960s.

And most meals have ended up being him and Lydia and Daisy gathered around the table, since the whole team rarely takes the time to eat together.

(The first time, Daisy had asked him nervously, as though it was a big deal instead of something relatively small. But he _does_ get the importance it — how much it means to Daisy to be able to give someone some semblance of normality, of family. And truth be told, it’s been nice to feel like part of something, a nice break from his habit of eating alone at his desk. He’ll miss it when they get Lydia into a permanent home situation.)

It’s been kind of fun, even if it sometimes feels shockingly domestic. (It’s been kind of fun at least in part _because_ it sometimes feels shockingly domestic.) Like right now, putting to bed a kid that he and Daisy have been responsible for, like they’re…

Well, he can’t even think that.

“Daisy tells me stories about princesses and monsters,” Lydia tells him helpfully, and Coulson nods. He can manage that.

“A long time ago,” Coulson begins his bedtime story, settling himself at the foot of the bed, “there was —”

“No,” she interrupts him. “That’s not how it starts.”

“A long time ago?”

“It’s _Once upon a time_ , Phil. When there are princesses and monsters, it’s _always_ ‘Once upon a time.’”

“Right,” he nods, deferring to the ten year old girl on finer points of fairy tale tropes. “ _On_ _ce upon a time_ , there was a prince named Phillip.”

“Like you?”

“Like me,” he agrees.

“Was he handsome?”

Coulson runs a hand along his jaw lightly.

“I don’t know.”

“I bet he was handsome,” Lydia tells him, face very serious like she’s reassuring him.

Again, he defers to the ten year old.

“Once upon a time, there was a handsome prince named Phillip, and he would ride out on his trusty steed to help people in the kingdom.”

“Was his steed named Lola?”

Coulson almost blushes, but he supposes it’s foolish to think he could somehow fool a ten year old into thinking this isn’t autobiography. Especially _this_ ten year old, who has already proven to be really smart.

“Yes,” he agrees. “His steed was named Lola. And she would carry him out on great adventures.”

“Like what?”

“Like to a town where there was a big troll who needed to be slayed, and a mysterious weapon that no one could pick up.”

“Like Excalibur?”

“Kind of,” he laughs, “yeah. But it was a hammer, not a sword, and the warrior who was supposed to pick it up had to go through some tests. So the Prince was there to make sure the weapon was safe and that no one would get hurt.”

“Did he slay the troll?”

“He tried to help. That what Prince Phillip does.”

“He helps?”

“Yeah. ”

Lydia lies back in the bed, seemingly pleased with how his story is progressing.

“What else?”

“Well, this is the story of how Prince Phillip met a great warrior.”

“What was his name?”

“ _Her_ name,” he corrects her gently, watching the girl smile up at him, “was Da—” Coulson pauses, licks his lips. “Daffodil.”

“Daffodil? That’s a dumb name for a warrior,” she tells him. “Daisy is much better.”

“I suppose it is,” he agrees.

“So you should just call her Daisy. Was she a knight?”

“Hmm,” he nods his agreement. “A lone knight. She would go out and try to help people, too. But the first time Prince Phillip heard about her, he wasn’t sure she could be trusted.”

“Of course she could be trusted. Daisy is the best.”

Lydia had developed an instant case of hero worship when Daisy broke down the door to a lab where Malick’s new Hydra had been trying to force transformations on children expected to carry the Inhuman gene. Coulson had run inside after her, freeing the children as Daisy knocked their captors unconscious and then helped him — incredible power and incredible tenderness.

It would be enough to make _anyone_ get a little worshipful (he tells himself), but Lydia in particular, an orphan like Daisy who has never had a stable family situation… Well.

“Well, the prince didn’t know that at first.”

“How did he find out?”

“So impatient,” he shakes his head playfully. “Well, he met Daisy because there was a man who was going to explode.”

“Explode?”

“Mmhmm. There was a very bad man — The Magician. And he was trying to turn people into his servants by offering them a potion.”

“Why would they take the potion?”

“He would find people who were in trouble and he would lie to them, and tell them that his potion would make their lives better. But it wouldn’t. It was very dangerous, and it had a terrible side effect.”

“Who was the man that almost exploded?”

“His name was Michael, and he had hurt himself in his job at the blacksmith shop, so he couldn’t work. And without his job, he had no way to feed his son.”

Coulson looks down at her — waiting for some kind of question — but she’s just looking back with wide eyes, like she’s waiting for more.

“Michael was desperate, so when The Magician told him that the potion would let him go back to work, he took it. And it did make him stronger. For a little while he thought everything was going to be okay. He even saved a woman’s life. That’s how Daisy found him.”

“Daisy found him first?”

“That’s right,” he agrees. “She saw him rescue the woman from a fire, and she tracked him down to make sure he was alright. See, she had been investigating the Magician. She knew there was something bad going on before Prince Phillip had even heard about it.”

“Because she’s smarter than him?”

Coulson raises his eyebrow at Lydia.

“Don’t tell _her_ that.”

It gets him a giggle, and he smiles in return.

“So, while Prince Phillip was looking for the mysterious man, he found Daisy instead. And he was afraid at first that Daisy might be someone who would want to hurt Michael, or use him for her own gain.”

“Daisy wouldn’t do that,” Lydia tells him, her tone laced with _duuh_.

“Well, Prince Phillip didn’t know that at first, so he brought in Daisy to talk to her, and he found out that she was a good person who just wanted to help Michael.”

“And then they did?”

“Yes,” he agrees. “The potion was making Michael out of control, and they had to calm him down enough so that their alchemists could make a reversal spell.”

“How did you calm him down?”

“I talked to him,” Coulson tells her easily. “I just told him that everything would be okay.”

“And then it was?”

He swallows — knows he’s telling a lie — and nods.

“Yeah, it was. They made it so Michael wouldn’t explode, and they made sure his son was safe.”

“And did Prince Phillip and Daisy kiss?”

“No,” Coulson shakes his head. “Prince Phillip asked Daisy if she’d like to live at his palace for a little while, to help him save people.”

“Did Daisy not have another home?”

“No,” Coulson answers seriously, “she didn’t. And she wasn’t sure she wanted to have a home at Prince Phillip’s palace.”

“Why not?”

“Well, she was used to being on her own, and at the palace there were rules to follow. And sometimes she didn’t like it when Prince Phillip had to follow the kingdom’s rules instead of just doing what Daisy thought was best.”

“Why wouldn’t Prince Phillip just listen to Daisy?”

“Sometimes he couldn’t. Prince Phillip had bosses, and they could tell him what he had to do. But he always valued how smart Daisy was and how much she would work to do the right thing.”

“Was she his favorite knight?”

“Yes,” he answers easily. “His very favorite.”

“And they saved more people?”

“They saved more people from the Magician, until one day the Magician kidnapped Prince Phillip.”

“Why?”

“He wanted to put Prince Phillip into a deep sleep so he could see into his dreams in order to learn the secrets of the kingdom.”

“And what did Daisy do?”

“The rest of the palace couldn’t go searching for Prince Phillip. They had different orders, and even Daisy was told that she couldn’t go after Prince Phillip.”

“But she did anyways?”

Coulson smiles.

“Yes. Daisy escaped out of the palace to go after him by herself, even though it was very dangerous.”

“How did she find him?”

“She had to go find a very bad man.”

“Did she beat him up?”

Coulson laughs.

“A little bit. But mostly, she was able to find a secret map that let her know where Prince Phillip was being kept. And to get there, she took the bad man’s steed and rode it all the way there.”

“Did she have to fight a dragon?”

Coulson raises his eyebrows.

“Sure.”

“Because the dragon was guarding Prince Phillip in a castle?”

Which is when he realizes that his story has turned into _Sleeping Beauty_. But he supposes there are worse things to be than Beauty.

“Yeah,” he agrees. “She had to storm a big castle, and she punched a dragon in the face.”

“That’s not how you fight a dragon,” Lydia tells him, giggling through the words.

“That’s how Daisy fights a dragon,” Coulson insists, and gets another laugh. “So she came into the castle and found Prince Phillip asleep.”

“And did she kiss him?”

“No,” Coulson answers, a bit bemused, but also caught up in his own story. “She called his name. And even though he was stuck in a terrible dream, he heard it, he heard that she wanted him to come back, so he did.”

“And _then_ did she kiss him?”

“No,” he laughs. “She didn’t kiss him. But Prince Phillip made sure that she could join the royal court permanently. So she’d never have to be alone again.”

“Never?”

“Never,” he agrees.

“It’s not as good as a kiss,” Lydia informs him. “But that’s pretty good.” Her voice is soft, and she cuddles into her stuffed bear in a way that makes his heart hurt.

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Coulson tells her, and he’s not sure whether he should continue or not when there’s a knock on the open door.

“Daisy!” Lydia nearly screams, bouncing up in bed towards her idol. “She’s back from her quest, Phil!”

He flushes at that, at the idea that Lydia will tell Daisy that he painted her as a knight in shining armor. And then, when he turns to look at Daisy — scrubbed down in a tank top and sweats, leaning against the door with her arms crossed and looking strangely domestic and gorgeous — he flushes more.

“Sorry,” Daisy frowns as she walks into the room. “I guess I undid your bedtime story.”

“My bedtime story wasn’t having the intended effect anyways,” Coulson informs her, rising from Lydia’s bed and giving Daisy his spot.

“Are you leaving, Phil?” Lydia answers, and he feels his cheeks burn as both she and Daisy turn to look at him.

“Yeah,” he answers, scratching the back of his neck. “I’ll see you both tomorrow.”

Daisy looks after him as he goes, something questioning in her eyes, and he pauses around the corner from the door just long enough to hear Lydia ask if Daisy had won on her quest.

“Yeah,” Daisy answers, obviously a little bit baffled, “I did.”

Coulson hurries down the hall to his bedroom and closes the door behind him, taking a deep breath as he does.

He’s almost expecting the knock that comes fifteen minutes later, when he’s changed into his own sweats and tshirt for bed.

Daisy stands on the other side of the door, hand on her hip and a little smirk on her lips.

“So, Prince Phillip?”

Coulson swallows.

“Yeah?”

“And his brave knight Daisy?”

Coulson can’t quite manage to make a noise, just nods awkwardly.

“Lydia seems pretty sure I’m supposed to kiss you.”

Coulson licks his lips.

“I was just telling a story.”

“About how I woke you up from a deep sleep caused by the evil Magician?”

“...yeah?”

“See, in _Sleeping Beauty_ , waking someone up from a deep sleep requires kissing.”

“I didn’t intend for it to be _Sleeping Beauty_ ,” he tells her. “I was just…”

“You were just telling the story and it kind of became _Sleeping Beauty_?”

“Lydia added the dragon,” he almost blames the girl. His ears feel hot, and he can barely look her in the eye.

“I kind of like it, the way she told it at least.”

He swears his heart stops beating for a moment.

“Yeah?”

“I never realized I was so heroic.”

Her eyes search his face, and he _almost_ wants to look away, scared of what she’ll see.

“Of course you are.”

“But I, um…” She grins at him, more than a little awkward creeping into her stance. “I think Lydia is right about the kissing?”

“Oh?”

His voice is higher pitch than he intends, and he steps backwards, fully into his bunk so that she follows.

“It definitely makes for a much better ending.”

Coulson licks his lips as his eyes drift down to her mouth.

“Just ending?”

“Beginning, too,” she grins at him and raises up on her tiptoes to get her lips almost against his, so he can feel her breath against his chin, her hand somehow on his shoulder and his on her hip.

“Once upon a time...” he whispers, and Daisy’s answering giggle is caught between them as she presses her mouth to his and kicks the door shut behind her.


End file.
